Chapter Five: Euthanasia Review

1. Chapter Five:EuthanasiaReview Applying Ethics: A Text with Readings (10th ed.) Julie C. Van Camp, Jeffrey Olen, Vincent Barry Cengage Learning/Wadsworth

2. What is the significance of “personhood” in considering euthanasia? • What are examples of the assignment of basic patient rights? • To refuse treatment • To be treated with dignity • What is the significance of the point at which we are no longer a person? • The definition of “death” • The point at which termination is no longer “murder”

3. What is the difference between ordinary and extraordinary treatment? Does this distinguish permissible from impermissible euthanasia? • What is ordinary treatment? • all medicines, treatments, procedures that offer reasonable hope of benefit but do not involve excessive pain • What is extraordinary treatment? • unusual, extremely difficult, dangerous, inordinately expensive, offer no reasonable hope of benefit

4. What is the moral significance of killing vs. allowing to die? • What is active vs. passive euthanasia? • Are they of equal moral status? • Does the distinction solve the euthanasia issue?

5. Voluntary vs. nonvoluntary • What is voluntary euthanasia? • A decision for euthanasia made by the patient • What is nonvoluntary euthanasia? • A decision made by someone else, not the patient • What is involuntary euthanasia? • A decision made by someone else, when the patient never expressed a preference

6. Assisted suicide • What is assisted suicide? • The act of terminating the life is carried out by the patient, but with assistance from medical personnel • What has the U.S. Supreme Court said about assisted suicide? • There is no right to assisted suicide • States may permit if they wish

7. “The Wrongfulness of Euthanasia” J. Gay-Williams • What is his position on (Active) euthanasia? • It is always wrong • What reasons does his give for this position? • Violates the nature and dignity of persons • Self-interest (e.g., possibility of new treatment, family pressure) • Practical effects (e.g., slippery slope to nonvoluntary euthanasia)

8. “Voluntary Active Euthanasia”Dan W. Brock • How does he defends voluntary active euthanasia? • Value of individual self-determination or autonomy • Value of individual well-being • How does he reconcile the moral goals of physicians with voluntary active euthanasia?

9. “Active and Passive Euthanasia”James Rachels • What is his position on the difference between active and passive euthanasia? • There is no moral difference between active and passive euthanasia • He rejects the American Medical Association distinction between active and passive • What is his reasoning? • Kantian respect for persons • Utilitarian consequences • Distinction leads to decision-making on irrelevant grounds

10. “Gender, Feminism, and Death: Physician-Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia”Susan M. Wolf • What is a feminist perspective on the ethics of assisted suicide and euthanasia? • As women are at greater risk for inadequate pain relief, depression, suicidal thoughts, are they capable of voluntary consent? • Do women feel more pressure to consent to assisted suicide or euthanasia, when men would not?